Goodbye - 75 years ago

belle reconstitution

A memorial of imperialism.

Good work my friend.
Have a nice evening.

Well remembered in Australia. Posed the possibility of invasion here.

Indeed it did, GrahamH.

Fabulous capture!

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And... I can provide my Dad's words from the end of it... in a letter to me years after....

"I had been on Long Range penetration behind Japanese lines for 4 years.... usual survival time was 2 weeks. After 4 years.. I came out the jungle and was put in a ship ready to embark for Singapore... then the A Bomb was dropped just before we weighed anchor. Remember this Pam... for all the horror and the deaths... more lives were saved. Singapore was not going to be taken from the sea.. and tens of thousands would have been massacred . mankind too was given a lesson in that terrible cloud... one that would have been learned later if not then."

My Dad never spoke of the horrors he went through on LRP in Burma .. he would just sometimes speak of the wonderful Indian Sepoys and the camaraderie .. but his was a lonely war in the jungles.

In the same letter to me many years later ... he also said this.

"Fight with all your heart to NEVER let this happen again... fight and resist every legal way you can"

You know.... it feels like the Trenches here in America now.... and this is just the start....

I am resisting... any way I can.

REMEMBER and LEARN.....

Thankyou for the lesson George.. I wish more took it to heart.

Pam, was your Dad in the Chindits? I've read two books about them and their work. Also have a book by an India-based Aussie RAF pilot who dropped supplies and people to to them and to other behind the lines people, and supplies to communists insurgents in Indochina.

Many thanks indeed for sharing that fascinating information on your father's background and advice, Pam. Yes, sadly I have to agree with you that the next few years could be very bad indeed.

To share my slightly related story on this, I always knew that my great uncle was "lost at sea" in the Pacific but without any details. Doing family research we found he had been sent in the Army as a vehicle mechanic to Singapore. When it fell, some units made it across to Java where they consolidated against the Japanese invasion - he was part. That ended with the Dutch capitulation of the the East Indies and they were sent to Changi.

From Changi he was sent to the Burma railway. In March 1944 after the railway was completed, 7000 surviving Australian POWs were assembled at Tamarkan, Thailand. They were mere skeletons. Nine hundred of the fittest were chosen to be sent to Japan. They were formed into groups and taken by rail to Bangkok and Phnom Phen and then by boat on the Mekong to Saigon Because of the American submarine blockade, shipping from there was considered too dangerous, so they were sent back to Changi for several months.

On the morning of the 4th September 1944 they were taken to the docks where they were loaded onto two freighters. The Rakuyo Maru was to carry the Australians and the Kachidoki Maru was to transport British POWs. The ships also carried rubber and each man was required to carry on board a two foot square block of rubber. The men were then crowded into the stifling hot hold.

On the 12 September 1944 the convoy, of which the Rakuyo Maru was now part, was sighted by the US submarine Sealion ll, which torpedoed her. The Japanese took all the life boats and left the POWs to fend for themselves. The Rakuyo Maru floated for many hours because of the rubber in the holds and some of the men were able to improvise floats. Some were machine gunned in the water by Japanese destroyers which returned to pick up Japanese crew. Somewhat later, the Sealion II surfaced and its crew were surprised to find some surviving Australians - sadly, my great uncle was not among them.

And, to bring this to date, I do not believe that naval exercises in the South China Sea (watch this space...) have anything in the slightest to do with "ensuring freedom of navigation".

Yes Graham he was....

He was one of Bill Slim's Forgotten Army. He was actually seconded to the Indian Army and thence to LRP .

The book you have is Out of the Blue: Pilot with the Chindits by Terence O'Brien I think ?

I have read it and its on my wish list at Alibris to buy a copy.

I have read several other books too. The things Dad would never speak of....

These are the stories that so NEED to be told loud and clear.

We are one of the last generations that heard these things from those who went through this horror. Our duty is NOT to forget... we canNOT let this happen again

Thankyou George for your piece of the jigsaw puzzle

Mine is "The Moonlight War" by Terence O'Brien, pub William Collins Sons & Co, 1987, ISBN 0-00-217803-6. According to the cover notes this is his second, after the one you mention.

My Dad's contribution was in the test and development area of a factory which made radio and radar gear for the RAN.

A brief story of the Chindits.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chindits

Your photo conveys the oppressive feeling- a sad and dark chapter in history!

Thanks for the reminder. he image is a great document! I didn´t know these facts.

What a photo and what stories to go with it, George. We've been in Singapore but have not seen this and will have too if we go again.

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C'est mémorable +++++

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Your beautiful capture is greatly admired

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